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Read MoreAll About Dad’s
Happy Father’s Day! Whether it’s fixing a flat tire, unstopping a toilet, doctoring a steer, or lighting a campfire; dad’s are some of the best teachers. Hats off to all of the men out there, whether they be dads, grandpas, uncles, brothers, friends, or neighbors who spend time with us...
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Read MoreCowboy Camp Beef Stroganoff
Beef Stroganoff is an old recipe. I stumbled on the history while researching recipes for cow camps and ranches. This very old Russian dish was created for Russian aristocracy by a French chef, was brought to America by Russian émigrés. Who doesn’t love a good beef recipe in a...
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Read MoreCowboy Approved Potato Casserole
As you read this blog post, we are gearing up for another week of branding at the Sanford Ranch. The cowboys and cowgirls are in the saddle before daylight and work during the coolest part of the day. They finish up with branding and vaccinations of new calves around...
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Read MoreCocklebur Camp
Abilene and the Western Heritage Celebration! Research for my book about chuck wagons took me to Abilene, Texas for the Western Heritage Celebration on a rainy, overcast Mother’s Day weekend. It was a huge event with vendors, roping and riding demonstrations, horse races, music, and lunch prepared by authentic...
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Read MoreSpring Branding on a Texas Ranch
The Work Begins! Every spring throughout ranch country, cowboys and cowgirls gather the cow/calf operation herds for branding. Some people claim that branding of livestock is a cruel practice, but it is necessary to establish ownership. The practice was introduced to North America by Cortes when...
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Read MoreHelp A Horse Day!
National Help a Horse Day is celebrated annually on April 26 to raise awareness of the people who work tirelessly to give abused and neglected horses a second chance. And they need your help! There are two equine sanctuaries in my area that have made a huge difference in...
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Read MoreMyths of the Working Cowboy: No Skills Required
While researching the Texas ranching industry, I’ve uncovered some interesting information based on assumptions of the ranching lifestyle and the work of the American cowboy. One historian referred to the cow hands of the great cattle driving era as “glorified cow walkers” because “cows are dumb” and they generally...
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Read MoreAn Obsession with Cows
“Have you checked the cows today?” After moving eight miles from town and down the road from my in-laws, I wondered at my father-in-law’s compulsion to drive through his cattle every single day, sometimes twice. My husband did the same. We drove through the steers he fed out on...
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Cowboy Gear: Ropes
Slang terms for Cowboy Ropes included Line, string, ketch-rope, clothes line, throw rope, saddle rope, grass rope, twine, whale line, hard twist, hair rope, or pepper-and-salt rope. Whatever you call it, they say that a range cowboy did everything with his rope but eat. Vaqueros in early New Spain (Spanish empire established in North America) made their ropes from braided strips of untanned hide. The ropes were thick and stretched up to 20 yards in length. Other early materials included silk manila, a hard-twist rope, inexpensive to make and good for all-around roping uses. There are also maguey ropes, made from the fibers of the maguey plant, from which the popular drink mescal is also produced. There were ropes made from linen or braided cotton. Mane-hair ropes were called cabresto. Lariat is the Americanized version of la reata, Spanish for “the rope.” Lasso, first coming from Portuguese origins laco, meaning to snare. Whatever the materials, the Mexican vequero impressed the early cowhands with his proficiency and skill. Dally, from the Spanish word dar la vuelta, means to wrap around an object, literally “giving her a turn.” In this case the rope is dallied around the saddle horn. The give in a dallied rope eliminates the stress of a sudden stop on...
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Collecting Recipes
Cookbooks take up three shelves above the desk in our kitchen, some old, some inherited and some new. My favorites are those old, used and sometimes stained binders filled with family favorites put together by church ladies or quilting clubs. I find them in used book stores and sometimes in unexpected places, hidden behind cast-off treasures in antique stores. I have to confess that I enjoy reading the cookbook more than I enjoy the actual task of cooking. It seems our life is so busy, and there’s the menu planning, the buying of the stuff, the prep work, and finally the actual cooking part. When I have a free evening to actually cook, the boys request their tried and true favorites. Sometimes they seem annoyed when I change things up or experiment with a new dish. None the less, I can’t help but keep collecting and reading, and on occasion, throw in something new for my family. This past week, I tried an old cow camp recipe, MEXICAN BEEF, which I discovered while researching the era of the great cattle drives in Texas. (I’m happy to report that my guys ate it!) I’m digging deep into Texas cowboy legend, Texas Longhorns, and cow camp food. The book will be published in 2020 by TwoDot...
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Cowboy Gear: Saddles
“The West was won and conquered by the men who sit in saddle leather.” Saddle, a cowboy’s workbench and his throne. In the West, known as cow saddles, range saddles, stock saddles. In the East as Mexican saddles, Western saddles or cowboy saddles. Western cowboys were not impressed with the small, pad-saddles of the Eastern rider and referred to them as hog skins, kidney pads, pimples, or postage stamps. Made for riding, not for working stubborn Longhorns, most came...
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From Vequero to Cowboy
What’s the difference between Vequero or Cowboy? Cattle handlers were called many names with various meanings over the past 150 years, beginning with the great cattle drive era to present day. Today cowboy is the most familiar term, but in the old days it meant something entirely different. The great cattle drives as we know it really took off in 1866 when Texas pioneer and cattleman Charles Goodnight drove a herd to Fort Sumner and then on to Colorado...
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